Getting tired

December 09, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Utrecht » HKI

The course Betsy and I are on is tiring me. It's too much of the same. Close to four weeks, three sessions of about three hours a day for five days a week. It's too much. I'm getting bored.

Not that the sessions are totally uninteresting (today we had a session on teambuilding and a session on the history of Africa with a session on the Dutch government policy in relation to development support still to come), but it's just too much of the same!

On a side note, the pocket camera ("L'espion") Betsy gave me for my birthday last year seems to have died. But on a more positive note, the video camera (Canon MVX100i) I bought for a project I'm working on is a killer.

Never the same again

The documentary "Never teh same again" is only three years old and already hopelessly dated. This documentary details Zimbabwe's growth towards democracy between 1980 and 2000. The film ends on a positive note, after elections where the opposition party MDC won a fair amount of the votes.

However, as we now know, during 2001 and 2002, lots of civil unrest, supported and sustained by the Mugabe government took place, showing that, in fact, during the last two decades, Zimbabwe has moved away from democracy with the positive twists and turns in 2000 being just an exception, not a trend.

What was interesting was that in this documentary, shot before Mugabe kicked out all foreign journalists, many 'important' people were interviewed on camera. People like Tsvangirai, Ncube and Ncube, Nkomo and many others.

Tiring week

December 05, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Utrecht » HKI

Yes, I haven’t had much time to update 30yp.com. It’s been a very busy week, but I even managed to find a bit of time to interview several people for a new project I’m working on. More on that later, I suppose.

Wednesday evening, time was set aside for interested friends or relatives to come and get informed on what it meant to be sent abroad for two years or more. Not only were they acquainted with what we could expect abroad, but also were they shown how they could keep in touch, how we will be taken care off, what they could expect. In short, they were shown they could relax. Most particularly, my mom felt much better at the end of the evening.

Thursday evening, time was scheduled to talk about our views on life, beliefs and disciplines. Everyone was still beat from the night before, but as soon as we started the discussion, no-one seemed able to stop. Jeroen, Ewan and myself finished the second bottle of whiskey in as many days and finally called it a day at 12am.

Friday morning, we talked to a visitor sent through Amnesty International. I’m already quite familiar with the general history of Zimbabwe and he was able to fill in some of the blanks.What worried me was that it seems that, indeed, going out on the streets after dark in Harare isn’t a good idea. So isn’t driving. And it’s wise to get a guard and, if possible, some big dogs to guard our property. Hmmm.

Only mountains never meet

December 02, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Utrecht » HKI

After a morning class on AIDS prevention and awareness (which could also have been an example class on ‘how to lie with statistics’), we had an afternoon class on original African relgions.
The class, hosted by a Kenian finished off with a typical Pokot (as he claimed) saying: Only mountains never meet.

Yesterday evening, we had a meeting with Mr. B. Vashee (Google), a real Zimbabwean. He turned out to be a third generation Indian, but he would only visit India for the first time ever next year.
As part of ZAPU, he had been imprisoned by the ever so kind Mr. Smith during the early seventies and had helped build the first independent government of Zimbabwe in 1980. Mugabe, focussed on creating a one party state, Mugabe minimilized the number of ZAPU ministers, resulting in Mr. Vashee never getting a ministerial post. In 1983, he left the country.

Although Mr. Vashee didn’t tell us much we didn’t know, he was quite certain that Mugabe would step down somewhere during 2004, probably mid-2004. His only real argument was that mid-2004, Zimbabwe would enter it’s third year of shortages, where Mugabe had promised only one. He was expecting either an internal power shift or, possibly even, fair and free elections. Mr. Vashee was already preparing a three month stay in Zimbabwe starting August 2004, in preparation for his return to Zimbabwe.
Another interesting point he made was that of the 4500 white farmers in Zimbabwe, some 1200 are left untouched. These are farmers, supporting Mr. Mugabe and ZANU-PF.

Meanwhile, I watched a documentary on the telly last nite on white farmers in Zimbabwe. It was called ‘the last Dutchman’ and simply followed the dealings of what appeared to be the four last Dutch farmers in Zimbabwe. The documentary ended with the remark that only last week, the last Dutch farmer left Zimbabwe.
Does that mean Betsy and I will be the only Duchees in Zim?

Heavy stuff

November 26, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Utrecht » HKI

Although the training is quite intensive, many sessions we get are interesting too. During three three-hour sessions, roughly running from 9am till 9pm with breaks for lunch and dinner, we are bombarded with cultural, political, economic and other information, related to developing nations and their relationship with the ‘North’.

Today, we had two very interesting sessions. Our morning session was led by C. van Beuningen on ‘sociocide’. Van Beuningen posed the question if developing nations and Africa in particular would have been better off without all the development aid of the past 40 years.

After dinner, R. Ruben, a professor at Wageningen University and also, at times, working for the World Bank, held a lucid plea in favor of commercializing development ‘aid’. He believed that, within ten years, development work as we know it will cease to exist. Not only will governments of developed nations sponsor developing countries with lump sums, not related to particular projects, most of the actual development projects will be replaced by commercial projects, initiated by businesses.

Acculturatie cursus

November 24, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Utrecht » HKI

Today marked the start of Betsy and mine ‘Acculturatie cursus’. Something of a training that should make us more familiar with having to live in a different culture.

The training lasts for three weeks, in Utrecht. During the week, we are expected to stay in Utrecht, on site at the Henry Kraemer Institute (HKI), where the training is being held.

The first day was still quite relaxing. Getting to know the other participants, we’re 9 in total, getting to know our trainers and watching two documentaries in the evening.

Melanie Bartels, the girl who’s website I made earlier this year and is now working in Israel, was sent there through the same organization as me. She followed the same training here in Utrecht and already warned me that many of the ‘students’ here have a very Christian background.
Lucky for me, only one person in the group is being sent out through a true mission and even then, she appears to be friendly.
The others don’t seem to be particularly religious.

And, on a side note, I got a phonecall that my video camera finally arrived in Amsterdam. It should be in Delft near the end of the week…

It’s been a tough week

November 23, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

Last week was tough. Besides wrapping up with the Shona language course, I had numerous PC related problems.

First, the fan on the CPU of my Linux machine died. Then my old Windows box died. Then the new PC which I bought mainly to do video editing was missing Firewire slots I did request. Then the HD wasn’t working as it needed to: I tried installing four OSs, but none managed to format the HD. Then, after trying 10-15 times, I finally managed to install W2000, resulting in numerous consecutive crashes. Luckily, the blue screens of death told me enough to realise the crashes originated with faulty Nvidea drivers.

Great huh. Everything seems to be working now.

Now if only the video camera I ordered two weeks ago would arrive.

Last day of Shona

November 21, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

Today marked our last lesson of Shona. Our teacher wanted us to only talk in Shona during our three hour lesson, but it was too tiring. Still, we didn’t do that bad at all.

We now know the different conjugations of verbs and can disect most sentences. Our vocabulary is relatively small, but we should understand enough to make ourselves heard when needed.
Now if only we can keep on practicing before leaving for Zimbabwe.

On a side note, today my other computer crashed. This 5 year old machine survived much longer then I expected, but the timing of it breaking down couldn’t be worse. I have so much to do these weeks it isn’t funny.

Luckily, I had just ordered a new machine which came in on Thursday. I’m now trying to get it to run, with mixed results. So much hardware, so few drivers.

Boney M and Chinese food

November 20, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » The Hague » Golden Wok restaurant

Today was a VERY good day. Although we just missed a free meal of Chinese food at the newly opened Golden Wok restaurant in the Hague, we still got a good discount on the all-you-can-eat they have on offer.

What was more important: Betsy and I went over to Holland Casino Rotterdam to see Boney M, live in concert. This band, unknown in the States, had all their original hits in 1977 and 1978 and since then, Mr Frank Farian has been recycling their hits in remix after remix. And for some strange reason, their songs still sound as cool, or should this be camp, as ever.

Bobby Farrel is back with the girls, it seems, all members have been recycled at least once. Bobby, of course, is still cool. Now, at 54, he’s as thin as an undernourished anorexia patient, but he still has the moves. True, he’s slower and less jumpy, but he still sweats as much.

The venue, too, was intrigueing. They had to perform on a tiny stage, maybe four meters in diameter, around which housewife sat next to housewife, going completely through the roof on Farrell’s moves and the girls’ singing.

Daddy. Daddy cool.

A happy fix

November 19, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Goris electronica

With a very gloomy face, I headed over to Goris electronica today, to get my PC fixed. Phoning ahead, I was told fixing my PC could take as a long as a week. However, they were able to fix it in 10 minutes, replacing the CPU fan.

I was afraid the CPU had burnt out, but it seems all’s working fine: I’m typing this now, no?

Kudos to Goris.

Angry and sad

November 18, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

Today my main PC seems to have died due to a hardware failure. It’s about a year old and already it can’t stand life anymore.
I suppose I should be happy for using Linux on that system, since, if my hard drives are still in order, my data is still safe. Yippie.

I can’t boot the system anymore. That is, it occasionally boots, but hangs after only a few minutes. Not enough to port the data to another system for backup. Great, huh.
So this probably means lots of expensive maintenance. Great, since I’m currently as rich as the Rothshields.

Meanwhile, Betsy and I started on our final week of Shona. Only three more lessons left, but don’t expect us to be fluent after Friday. We’ll merely be less helpless.

Terpstra and the Prince of Orange

November 14, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Amsterdam » Koepelkerk

Today was interesting. In a house close to where I live, I saw the first Christmas tree and Christmas decorations of the year.

I also visited a symposium/congress/conference today on sport and development. This will be the field I’ll be working in, in Zimbabwe. It was, well, interesting.
The best part was that I met both the director of the organisation I’ll be working for and the man responsible for the unit I’ll be working in. Both were friendly, chatty and nice to talk too.

The symposium was visited by the likes of the Prince of Orange, Johan Olav Koss, Mr Adolf Ogi, Erica Terpstra (president of NOC*NSF), Ms Ross van Dorp (Dutch state secretary of sport) and was hosted by Humberto Tan. Many other high-level people I didn’t recognize but seemed to be packing lots of weight complemented the already impressive list of people.
Shortly after sitting down, Erica Terpstra, pretty huge by anyone’s standards, sat down right in front of me. Before sitting down, she introduced herself to me, explaining she was sorry for taking a seat right there: “I’m sorry to sit for you”.
If anything, I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere. These people seemed, generally, to care more for this sub-subject of development work than what I’ve often seen in people working in development organisations. Most particularly, Mr Adolf Ogi, former president of Switzerland and now assisting Kofi Annan on making decisions in the field of sports and development, was very passionate and a great speaker.
Still, it does appear that a conference like this is a typical example of “preaching to the choir”. Some choice quotes: “Do what you believe in, believe in what you do.” – Adolf Ogi; “We believe in the zone.” – Charles Dzimba; “Sport is way above the oppertunities for children in developing countries.” – Thomas Sithole.

The conference was in English, although about 30% of the visitors were Dutch. The level of English spoken by many of the Dutch was shameful. Here are some examples (although only Dutchees really would understand them):

Humberto Tan: “Do you think it came over?” (Do you think they understood what you said?)
Erica Terpstra: “I’m sorry to sit for you.” (I’m sorry to sit in front of you.)
Erica Terpstra: “… they have no perspective.” (… they have no future.)
van Breda Vriesman: “I have to watch out not to loop him for the voeten.” (I have to watch out not to hamper him.)
?: “This should be a cooperation, not a concurrence.” (This should be a cooperation, not a competition.)
?: “My foreparents must be Sicilian.” (My forefathers must be Sicilian.)
van Breda Vriesman: “We are doing well in time.” (We are right on time.)

I only staid for the morning session, which already set me back 50 euros. Including the afternoon session would have set me back an additional 50 euros. But I did wait around for the drinks, afterwards, if only to, well, drink. No, if only to talk to my contacts in Zimbabwe.

Ambition

November 11, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Kok catering

The evening was spent listening to two speeches. My bank, the ABNAMRO, had set up a meeting for clients owning a business in the Delft region. I had to go. If only for the free drinks and food.
Actually, I wasn’t really interested, but Betsy thought it funny to meet former colleagues, so we went.
The director of the theme park ‘The Efteling’ had a nice speech and I might gotten a new client, so it wasn’t totally useless.

Meanwhile, we’re still learning Shona. Today our lesson was no less then four hours long and it was a lot. True, we’re starting to learn more and more, but our lack of vocabulary is evident. And listening to Shona, trying to understand what is said is still very, very difficult.

This Friday, I’ll be going to a convention on sport and development in Amsterdam where both my direct contact in Zimbabwe and his boss will be too. Recently, I’ve learned that politically, the organization, like the country I suppose, isn’t totally stable and there is a chance that my trip and work in Zimbabwe might be called off.

Meanwhile, I’ve started to contemplate my project in Zimbabwe a bit more. More and more stories are coming out of the country that suggest that Zimbabwe REALLY is in a big mess, economically and politically.
Although the country was in good shape until, say, 1997, the last couple of years everything has gone down hill, quickly. It seem rather pointless to help people out with some Internet-based management tool in the field of sport and development when 40% of the country has AIDS, many people nearly starve to death and unemployment is at 70%. I’ll basically be supporting a regime which, in many ways, terrorises its citizens.

I’m a star

October 30, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Rotterdam » Radio Rijnmond studio

I had another interview today on Radio Rijnmond’s ‘Salon dot com’ programme. Run by three ‘media doctors’ the show’s centered around new technology.

Last March, I had been in the studio to look ahead in relation to my upcoming project in Mongolia. Now, we were looking back, as well as looking forward to my upcoming project in Zimbabwe.

During the first two months of my stay in Mongolia, I had something of a weekly column on Salon dot com. However, since my first two months were mostly spent doing next to nothing, the column was pulled. Now, I had my revenge!

More lessons

October 28, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Leiden » Lowani

Doing homework after our first day of lessons was hard. Betsy and I felt we didn’t know a thing and had to look up all the words we thought we had learned in the first place. Frustrated, after studying for two and a half hours, we turned on the TV.
Today, on our second day, we noticed we weren’t doing that bad at all. Although we were stumbling through the dialogue our teacher tried to pull us through when entering her house, we surprised ourselves with the many words and sentences we could come up with during our three our lesson.

When learning a language, you generally go through a number of cycles where realisations of ineptitude and aptitude are the, sequential, major emotions as far as learning the language is concerned. After an afternoon of ineptitude, during the lessons we felt quite apt. After doing today’s homework, we felt very inapt again.
Still, the language isn’t as hard as some other languages. The major hurdle seems to be the vocabulary. The grammar appears to be very straightforward, very regular. Let’s hope it really is.
Already, I can ask ‘hwahwa ari kupi’, ‘where is the beer?’. Important.

On a side note, Delft, my hometown, burned today: Malta, a shop selling sporting gear close to the downtown central market, burned to the ground, taking the two next-door houses with it.

Shona language course

October 27, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

For our trip to Zimbabwe, Betsy and I started on our Shona language course today. Set for four weeks, we’re supposed to get 36 hours of training. On top of that, we’ll have to do homework, making the grand total of hours spent learning Shona somewhere between 50 and 70. Not bad for learning a language.

Shona seems to be a fairly easy language. Sure, the vocabulary is completely new, although some words have been derived from English, but it’s also very regular, making it easier to deduct the meaning of words or sentences from the way they’re put together.

Our trainer, a 40-something Dutch woman who’s spent a number of years in Southern Africa is friendly and seems to be a quite reasonable teacher. Although the cassettes she seems to have prepared for us could have been upgraded to CDs.

At home again

October 07, 2003 • Blog

World » Netherlands » Delft » Home

After watching 'Changing Lanes' with Betsy (a terrible movie), Betsy was flipping channels as I was preparing to go upstairs and do some work. She was zapping past some semi-reality show and I realised that today's offerings on TV are just an extension of the adagio of the old Fluxus movement from the 60s and seventies.
Fluxus' mantra was that 'Everything is art and everyone's an artist.' I like that. Today's television networks' mantra seems to be that 'Everything is interesring and everyone's a specialist.' I don't like it at all. It makes television VERY boring.

Puppetry of the penis

The day before, for Betsy's birthday, we went to see a couple of Ozzies doing tricks with, yes, their penises. Reasonably funny, if not painful.

The beauty of Aya Sofya

September 28, 2003 • Blog

World » Turkey » Istanbul » Inside Aya Sofya

Although we were flying back on the 30th, the 28th was basically our last day on holiday. The next day would be spent traveling from Istanbul to Thessaloniki and the day after would be spent on a trip from Thessaloniki, via Athens, to Brussels and back home.

Our last day in Istanbul was expensive, visiting Aya Sofya and a Turkish Hamam, including scrub, regular massage and foot massage, that is, someone walking on your back while you’re lying on the ground.

The baths were very expensive, 20 euros a head, but good. The masseuses tried to get us to pay more, while we were *inside* the baths, which was very annoying and due to a misunderstanding, we almost had to cough up some cash for rendered services.
What was sad, though, was the fact that women and man bath separately. Although most men were still wearing a towel around their waist while in the baths (there is no ‘swimming pool’), in the girls’ baths, everyone was running around naked, no doubt having a major fuckfest every 30 minutes or so.

We ended our stay in Istanbul with diner at one of the more expensive restaurants right next to the Blue Mosque, with live music, nargileh and a dancing dervish.

With captain Ali in Gallipoli

September 26, 2003 • Blog

World » Turkey » Gallipoli peninsula » Somewhere on the peninsula

I always feel reluctant about joining a pre-arranged tour, anywhere. However, the tour we booked with Hassle Free was not only very good, but also very affordable. For a two day trip, including excursions with a knowing guide to Gallipoli and Troy, transportation, one lunch and one nights accommodation, we paid $59. A quick calculation learns that arranging it on your own might be a tad cheaper, but leaves with the difficulty of arranging local transport and with no guide.

In Gallipoli, we were toured around by a local historian, retired submarine captain Ali, from whom we even received some shells founds on the peninsula. In Troy, we were guided by another local historian. Both tours were done very well.

Canakkale isn’t an interesting town in itself, although its location, on the Asian side of the Dardanelles is impressive. The locals have a much more Mediterranean look to them and the girls are much more beautiful than in Istanbul. Of course what helped was that most were dressed as the girls in Greece, with no shawl around their head and with tight sitting pants and shirt.

Driving back from Canakkale, I realized one thing I didn’t like about Turkey: its style of city planning. It seems someone has been playing SimCity a little bit too often. Groups of identical buildings seem to be huddled together everywhere. In the cities, in the countryside. Between the groups, the buildings are always different, but within a group, they are identical.

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